Roche enters partnership with the Global Fund to support low- and middle-income countries in strengthening critical diagnostics infrastructure
Roche (OTCQX: RHHBY) has partnered with The Global Fund to enhance diagnostic capabilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), targeting infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. The collaboration aims to improve access to diagnostics, helping millions of undiagnosed individuals. Currently, about 2 billion people are estimated to have TB, with a significant portion of TB fatalities occurring in LMICs. The COVID-19 pandemic has further disrupted healthcare programs, intensifying the need for immediate action in diagnostics to save lives.
- Collaboration with Global Fund to improve diagnostic access in LMICs.
- Targeting critical diseases: HIV and tuberculosis, with millions potentially benefiting.
- Building local capacity to tackle diagnostic infrastructure challenges.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted testing rates, causing a 22% decline in HIV testing.
- An estimated 100,000 additional TB deaths occurred in LMICs due to disruptions.
- Almost half of the world’s population has no or limited access to diagnostics
- This situation is especially acute in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where diagnostics plays a critical role for treating and containing the spread of infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV
- New partnership between Roche and the Global Fund supports low- and middle-income countries in broadening access to diagnostics, helping millions of previously undiagnosed people with TB and HIV get diagnosed and eventually treated
Basel, 12 May 2022 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY), through its Global Access Program, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are joining forces to build and strengthen diagnostic capacity and pandemic preparedness in low-and middle-income countries fighting against HIV and tuberculosis (TB).
About 2 billion people worldwide are estimated to be infected with tuberculosis, with
Roche and the Global Fund have joined forces to improve the diagnosis of HIV and TB in LMICs by building local capacity to tackle fundamental infrastructure challenges for generating and delivering diagnostic results and managing healthcare waste.
This includes building effective processes to collect, transport, test samples and return the results to patients for timely clinical interventions, as well as addressing challenges arising from a lack of network infrastructure, workforce capacity, access to roads, and IT systems. The partnership will also include novel approaches to reduce the environmental and economic burden of healthcare waste generated during the testing process itself and the disposal of instruments and medical devices at the end of its/their useful life.
“Roche is excited to join forces with the Global Fund and their partners to support countries in developing critical diagnostic networks in the global fight against HIV and TB.”, said Thomas Schinecker, CEO of Roche Diagnostics." Connecting our experts with critical local stakeholders, we are aiming to help build sustainable solutions that could be scaled across countries."
“Getting people to test for HIV and TB is fundamental to containing transmission and enrolling people on treatment, which are crucial steps to saving lives and ending these diseases as public health threats,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “We are pleased to partner with Roche in expanding access to diagnostics tools for HIV and TB. These efforts will strengthen the fight against these diseases and help the world prepare better for future pandemics.”
Through collaboration with the Global Fund, Ministries of Health and country-based partners, Roche will first support assessments and implementation of new technologies and knowledge transfer in 2 to 3 pilot countries, with the ambition to scale up and expand support in 10 countries over the next five years.
About the Global Access Program
In 2014, Roche first launched its Global Access Program to support the UNAIDS 2020 targets to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Since then, the program was expanded to include solutions for other high-burden diseases such as Tuberculosis (TB), Hepatitis B and C (HBV and HCV), and Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Most recently, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 test was included into the program. The program is designed to support end-to-end, sustainable, local solutions that build capacity and strengthen healthcare systems, with a focus on diagnostics and laboratory networks.
The continual expansion of offerings highlights Roche's commitment to eliminate high burden infectious diseases for patients living in resource-constrained settings with limited access.
Any laboratory that implements a Roche instrument system gains the ability to scale up testing across multiple disease areas, thus increasing efficiency with respect to limited resources or time. An integrated approach supports national programs focused on increasing access to diagnostic testing, to help manage or reduce the impact of preventable disease for patients.
Learn more: https://diagnostics.roche.com/global/en/article-listing/global-access-program.html
About The Global Fund
The Global Fund is a worldwide movement to defeat HIV, TB and malaria and ensure a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all. We raise and invest more than US
Information on the work of the Global Fund is available at www.theglobalfund.org.
About Roche
Founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first industrial manufacturers of branded medicines, Roche has grown into the world’s largest biotechnology company and the global leader in in-vitro diagnostics. The company pursues scientific excellence to discover and develop medicines and diagnostics for improving and saving the lives of people around the world. We are a pioneer in personalised healthcare and want to further transform how healthcare is delivered to have an even greater impact. To provide the best care for each person we partner with many stakeholders and combine our strengths in Diagnostics and Pharma with data insights from the clinical practice.
In recognizing our endeavor to pursue a long-term perspective in all we do, Roche has been named one of the most sustainable companies in the pharmaceuticals industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the thirteenth consecutive year. This distinction also reflects our efforts to improve access to healthcare together with local partners in every country we work.
Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.
For more information, please visit www.roche.com.
All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.
References
[1] The Global Fund 2022. Geneva: Fight for what counts. Investment case.
[2] Global tuberculosis report 2021. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021
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